A few minutes after noon, the City Hall alarm room operator received
a phone call reporting a fire at the Penn Hardware Company, Water and Spruce
Streets. Before the operator could setup a still alarm assignment, Box 122,
Water Street just below Spruce, was pulled. Instead of sending the still
alarm, the alarm room operator allowed the bell alarm to go through to the
stations.
The 12:10 bell alarm brought out engines from the Neversinks, Friendships, Liberties, Oakbrooks, Reading Hose, and both the aerial and engines from the
Keystones and Washington stations.
The apparatus arrived on location within minutes and found an old section of the
former company well involved.
A second alarm, dispatched at 12:15, sent two trucks from the
Schuylkills, and a second engine from the Friendships and Oakbrooks.
At 12:19, a general alarm was sounded, bringing out the Rainbows,
Juniors, Hampdens and Union fire companies.
As the fire intensified, the sprinkler system went off. This combined with a large fire wall, helped control the blaze. The flames
were contained in one building, Chief Bowers placed the fire under
control at 12:49. Radiant heat and burning embers caused minor damage to the nearby
Midland-Western, Inc., a fertilizer company at 160 Water Street.
Moments before the fire was discovered, several people saw juveniles on
the roof of the complex, checking the pigeons they were raising. Both
Assistant Chief Albert P. Batastini, and City Police Fire Marshal Joseph Confora,
agreed that the fire was very suspicious. This became the sixth suspicious fire
to hit the Hardware building in a month.
While the general alarm companies were committed to the fire grounds, the
Greenfield Fire Company handled a smoke odor call at 1514 Greenview Avenue. Firefighters from the county company could not find a cause.
The next day, September 12, members of the Keystones accompanied Deputy
Chief Drexler and Assistant Chief Batastini back to the fire scene when a
section of the roof was found burning. The 10:30 still alarm was controlled in a
short time.
A handful of suspicious fires, beginning on August 17, 1961, led to the
arrest of Robert Edwards, a 22-year-old from Stony Creek Mills.
The next day, August 18, 1961, at 12:26, a still alarm was given for
debris burning in the building.
August 19, 1961 began with another debris fire in the vacant industrial
building. A 07:54 bell from Gamewell District 122, Water and Spruce, brought
companies out once again. Twenty-three minutes later, an out tap was given.
City
Police Detective Kenneth E. Sweigart now focused his attention on employees of the
Midland-Western Company, who were found fighting the fire inside Penn Hardware
when the firemen arrived.
Patrolman Jack R. Shipe began walking the area, checking for suspicious
people or children in the area, when someone threw a bottle at him.
Shortly after the bottle-throwing incident, Detective Sweigart discovered
another fire burning inside the Penn Hardware. Sweigart radioed a still
alarm and shortly after 11:00, members of the Keystones doused burning rafters on
the second floor.
The general alarm blaze sped up the investigation and before September
11, 1961 came to a close, Detective Sweigart had his man. Robert Edwards
naturally denied everything, but broke down during the interrogation and confessed.
He became a prime suspect after professing to be the one that turned in two
bell alarms for working fires in the vacant plant, and was found fighting
flames during the August 18, 1961 still alarm.
The 22-year-old Edwards was found guilty of two Penn Hardware arsons, one
on August 19 and the general alarm on September 11, 1961, and sentenced to
six-months to five-years in Berks County Prison on December 15, 1961. In
addition, he was ordered to pay $14,000 restitution.
An interesting fact about the Penn Hardware building was that it became
the center of corrupt politics when, on September 30, 1958, U.S. Attorney
Harold K. Wood served a subpoena on Abe Markowitz, president of David Realty
Corporation and former owner of the building. This came after law enforcement
officials raided the property on June 7, 1958 and seized a liquor-making still.
Attorney Wood said it was doubtful that a still could have been operated
five blocks from the main thoroughfare of Reading without being known to some
of the city officials and without protection at some level. He backed up the
claim that top city officials were involved as he revealed the building where
the still was located had received "top priority" in sewer and water line
attention.
Wood disclosed an October 16, 1957 resolution that gave permission for
10-inch sewer and water lines to be installed in the building, a building that
was vacant and had not been used in years.
It was believed the still had been
in operation from December 1956 and could produce 4,800-gallons of 200-proof
alcohol every 24-hours.
The portion of the building where the still was discovered was a 46-foot
by 117-foot three-story structure that measured 11,078 square-foot. It
included a one-story, 60 by 55-foot building and a 12-foot alley that led to Spruce
Street.
Records showed the property, assessed at only $18,000, was purchased
on January 10, 1957 by Joe Brown, of 121 Penn Street, from the David Realty
Corporation for $45,000. U.S. Attorney Harold K. Wood remarked that when the
investigation began, there were no property records of a "Joe Brown," and that
he never lived at 121 Penn.
Further into the case, Donald C. Noecher, chief revenue controller at
City Hall, disclosed that the building's water consumption jumped from 15,200
cubic-feet in January 1958 to 78,700 cubic-feet in June 1958.
A week after the June 7, 1958 raid, two top tri-state syndicate members
were arrested in New Jersey in connection to the illegal still.
As the investigation continued, Reading's mayor, Daniel F. McDevitt, took
a noticeable defensive stand against the U.S. Attorney's office and blasted
their interrogation methods of city employees. When approached by area
reporters, McDevitt said that he had no objection to treasury agents talking to his
workers.
Mayor McDevitt was indicted and appeared on the witness stand on October
30, 1958. Questioned for more than an hour, he denied any knowledge of the
still and operations. In addition to McDevitt, there were seventeen other
people brought before a federal grand jury in Philadelphia.
On March 31, 1959, Federal Judge Edwin D. Steel Jr. ruled the entire
illegal distillery in Reading a mistrial.
Ten years after this general alarm, on March 14, 1971, a general alarm
fire leveled the one-time thriving industrial building. The 1971 blaze was
the first multiple alarm fire for Fire Chief Russell Paul Mogel, father of
current Second Deputy Chief Gary Mogel, and the spectacular flames that roared
from the structure could only be rivaled 25-years later by the Moss Street
general alarm of May 25, 1996.
Story is from the archives of Tony Miccicke, Department Historian. Photos courtesy of the late Deputy Chief Albert Batastini.
